Buck Goldstein

University Entrepreneur-in-Residence and Professor of the Practice, UNC Minor in Entrepreneurship

Buck Goldstein is the University entrepreneur-in-residence and a professor of the practice in the UNC Department of Economics. Goldstein joined the University faculty in 2004 to help build The Carolina Entrepreneurial Initiative, a multi-year, multi-million dollar project to make entrepreneurship, broadly defined, part of the intellectual fabric of the campus. The UNC entrepreneurship curriculum has been named by a variety of national publications as among the nation’s best. In 2010, he co-authored, with former Chancellor Holden Thorp, “Engines of Innovation—The Entrepreneurial University in the 21st Century,” making the case for the pivotal role of research universities as agents of societal change.

Goldstein has been involved in entrepreneurship most of his professional life. He is the co-founder of Information America, an online information business that evolved over a 15-year period from startup through venture financing to public company, before it was ultimately acquired by the Thomson Corporation. He later founded NetWorth Partners, a venture capital fund focusing on information-based enterprises, with Mellon Ventures as its largest investor. He subsequently became a partner in Mellon Ventures, the venture capital arm of Mellon Bank, where he served on the board of directors of numerous early-stage information companies.

Goldstein also serves on the board of directors of Medfusion, a medical information technology company based in Raleigh, NC, and Nourish International, a nonprofit organization that engages college students across the United States in poverty reduction projects around the world. He previously served as a board observer for iContact, an email marketing company based in the Research Triangle Park until its acquisition by Vocus in 2012. Goldstein has also worked as an advisor to Liquidia, a nano-technology company founded in the UNC chemistry department.